In the news-you-can-use category: There are already at least as many definitions of "branding" as there are of "marketing". Which, as the last Democrat in the White House would tell you, are almost as plentiful as definitions of "is" and "are". I've always been inclined to look at marketing as all the things you do that give people reasons to buy your stuff as opposed to anyone else's. But here's another perspective. Marketing is the profitable movement of your product (or your service) from concept...to purchase. This implies that the "marketing" function has touched the conception and implementation of the product's design, which implies that customers/consumers have factored heavily into conceiving in the first place; that it's priced to afford you a good margin and give the customer perception of a good deal, placed or distributed in such a way that those people have access to it, and promoted in ways that resonate with them. Any friction along the way, from manufacturability and quality issues to distribution/availability, to a lousy value proposition, in other words, anything that hinders movement of your product from conception to consumption, is a barrier that good marketing should guard against, minimize, or prevent altogether. A lot the old texbooks mentioned those old "4 P's". But you can also think about it as movement, as in moving products and inventory.
